BPX 45 - status and updates

[Trond]

My photo is in the mail!

 

[Ajven]

Today morning I visited the Post office and sent my prints for BPX45.

 

[spijker]

My photo is in the mail!

It arrived today. A nice print of a Norwegian forest scene. Photographed with a Wista 45 large format camera. I had to look that up as "Wista" didn't ring a bell. Lots of detail in the print. The Fomatone paper with the light selenium toning gives it a nice warm tone which suits the photo very well. I like it. Thanks Trond.

 

[bernard_L]

Received yesterday (was away in Paris, saw the Stephen Shore exhibit) two prints from @Ajven . Two very nice prints on Foma Variant 111. Both belonging to the Abstract category in a broad sense.
One is a pic of a large pipe with three arcs: the edge, light falling on the inside, and a specular reflection.
The other is an "objective" representation of a doorbell button; the unfamiliar (to most viewers) language addds to the enigmatic character.
Both enlargements technically perfect as far as I can judge. And I think I learned a trick as follows: I print borderless (need to flatten paper before putting it under the enlarger), and my prints are either mounted on dibond or forex or under a mat; in either case the edge (~2mm) is either cut away or hidden; at first I thought the very thin white borders on the prints from @Ajven did not make sense, but I now see that is maybe what I should do: use an easel with very thin "sacrificial" borders. This goes to show the worth of exchanging actual prints, instead of d**l images, or, as so frequent, endless arguments between participants who have never shared a single image.

 

[Don_ih]

Those are very nice thin borders. I always use the easel blades to hold down the paper and end up with a border - never as neat and uniform as that.

Oh, and people here should know, but might not be aware, sign-up for the current round of BPX is open.

 

[Ajven]

Glad to see that my prints arrived in good shape to France!

@bernard_L, @Don_ih :
And about the thin borders: I use an old two-blades-easel (unknown manufacturer, maybe Meopta) and I have to make an effort to keep the blades (almost) perpendicular. In origin the borders are wider (about 10mm) because I glue the wet prints to the glass panes using brown paper tape. After drying I cut out the prints and I left this slim borders to absorb some dents during mail-post transport. Maybe I let you down but I am definitely not able to achieve these thin uniform borders directly with my old easel but I need the borders for two reasons: to keep FB paper 24x30cm flat under an enlarger and to dry the prints on the glass pane to a flat shape.
Thank you very much for your feedback!

 

[Don_ih]

keep FB paper 24x30cm flat

I was going to mention that none of my fibre paper is flat enough to not need to hold it down with the easel blades - even the stuff that's new (well, couple years old).

 

[mfohl]

I was going to mention that none of my fibre paper is flat enough to not need to hold it down with the easel blades - even the stuff that's new (well, couple years old).

I use the old Speed-E-Zels. No blades, they work fine.

 

[halfaman]

Print on the mail at last!

 

[Ajven]

About three weeks ago, @spijker asked me if I had received his contribution to this BPX round. He wrote he had sent it in the half of April. Unfortunately, his envelope got lost somewhere on the way across the ocean to Europe. He was so kind and prepared two another prints for me. I received them yesterday and because these prints are very, very nice from all aspects I asked him if I'm allowed to share a picture of the prints here. He agreed, so you can enjoy his photos as I did. Sorry for reflections (prints are made on glossy Ilford FB paper 24x30cm)

As @spijker wrote in the attached letter, both prints are from Italy taken with Mamyia 645. Both large prints are technically perfect as far as I can tell. The first looks calm - gondolier on some Venice side channel. The photo is full of details on the walls of building. You realize that this is not a picture from history when you recognize the bow of a speed boat at the "crossroads". The print is selenium toned with deep black.
The second picture is completely different. It is full of energy and movement. Street dancers in Bologna were caught in the right moment. Feel the joy of summer dancing and maybe, just maybe, you'll hear some music while you look at the picture for a while. Gorgeous shot!

Thanks @spijker

PS: I still hope that the first envelope arrives someday....

 

[spijker]

Thanks for your kind words, Ivan. I'm glad that the 2nd envelope made it through the postal system and that you like the prints. I enjoyed the process of selecting and printing the photos. So I didn't mind printing two more.

 

[Don_ih]

Print on the mail at last!

And arrived today. It's a wonderful colour photo of a statue taking a long gaze across a vast landscape. The clouds and the sky add perfectly. The statue you say was installed in 2009, but it looks like it could have been there a thousand years. Thank-you for the print - one can always rely on your excelled colour printing skills.

I can't get a real idea of how big the statue is. Is it human-size or larger? I'm imagining it is a giant contemplating tossing boulders down into that valley....

 

[halfaman]

And arrived today. It's a wonderful colour photo of a statue taking a long gaze across a vast landscape. The clouds and the sky add perfectly. The statue you say was installed in 2009, but it looks like it could have been there a thousand years. Thank-you for the print - one can always rely on your excelled colour printing skills.

I can't get a real idea of how big the statue is. Is it human-size or larger? I'm imagining it is a giant contemplating tossing boulders down into that valley....

Thanks for you kind words, Don. The statues are human size but they are on the top of a cliff, so it is not difficult to make them look like a giants compared to other side of the valley. This viewpoint trick and the quality of the statues really attracted me compared to other photos I took there.

 

[Don_ih]

I suspected they were human-size (maybe a bit bigger). I can certainly understand why you would be interested in photographing them - I would have, as well.

 

[Ajven]

About three weeks ago, @spijker asked me if I had received his contribution to this BPX round. He wrote he had sent it in the half of April. Unfortunately, his envelope got lost somewhere on the way across the ocean to Europe. He was so kind and prepared two another prints for me. I received them yesterday and because these prints are very, very nice from all aspects I asked him if I'm allowed to share a picture of the prints here. He agreed, so you can enjoy his photos as I did. Sorry for reflections (prints are made on glossy Ilford FB paper 24x30cm)

As @spijker wrote in the attached letter, both prints are from Italy taken with Mamyia 645. Both large prints are technically perfect as far as I can tell. The first looks calm - gondolier on some Venice side channel. The photo is full of details on the walls of building. You realize that this is not a picture from history when you recognize the bow of a speed boat at the "crossroads". The print is selenium toned with deep black.
The second picture is completely different. It is full of energy and movement. Street dancers in Bologna were caught in the right moment. Feel the joy of summer dancing and maybe, just maybe, you'll hear some music while you look at the picture for a while. Gorgeous shot!

Thanks @spijker

PS: I still hope that the first envelope arrives someday....

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The Unbelievable Has Come True!

Last Thursday the postman rang and brought a surprising envelope. Inside were two beautiful photos from Paris by @spijker . The envelope took an incredible 13 months to fly from Canada, but the surprise was even greater.

 

[spijker]

Wow, 13 months, that's crazy. I'm also pleasantly surprised that the prints were finally delivered. Glad you like them and thanks for the update.

 

[halfaman]

You don't have the record. We sent a postcard from Egypt (Hurgada) to my partner grandmother in Spain that took 18 months to arrive. I guess it is never too late for some postal services...

 

[MattKing]

It was probably lodged/stuck somewhere in the mail processing chain, and not found until some required maintenance or other reason to take things apart resulted it being re-discovered.